Mitochondrial Evolution

Viewed through the lens of the genome it contains, the mitochondrion is of unquestioned bacterial ancestry, originating from within the bacterial phylum α-Proteobacteria (Alphaproteobacteria). Accordingly, the endosymbiont hypothesis--the idea that the mitochondrion evolved from a bacterial progenitor via symbiosis within an essentially eukaryotic host cell--has assumed the status of a theory. Yet mitochondrial genome evolution has taken radically different pathways in diverse eukaryotic lineages, and the organelle itself is increasingly viewed as a genetic and functional mosaic, with the bulk of the mitochondrial proteome having an evolutionary origin outside Alphaproteobacteria. New data continue to reshape…

• CI
  Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
• CR
  Canada Research Chairs
• CI
  Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• NS
  Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• MR
  Medical Research Council